UNIVERSITY OF PETROLEUM &

ENERGY STUDIES
“The SAP system is providing us with
strong intra-organizational linkages,
information sharing, and efficient
management of resources.”
Dr. S. J. Chopra, Chancellor, University of
Petroleum & Energy Studies
SAP HELPS ENERGIZE BUSINESS OF
HIGHER EDUCATION AND RESEARCH
QUICK FACTS
Organization
• Name: University of Petroleum & Energy
Studies
• Location: Dehradun, India
• Industry: Higher education and research
• Products and services: Educational
services
• Revenue: INR 35 crores in 2008
(approximately US$8.7 million)
• Employees: 250
• Web site: www.upes.ac.in
• Implementation partner: L&T Infotech Ltd.
Challenges and Opportunities
• Multiple stand-alone legacy IT systems
• No access to real-time data
• Slow, imprecise decision making
Objectives
• Automate business processes
• Provide access to real-time data
• Provide a single point of access to all data
• Manage operations systematically and
collaboratively at strategic level
• Improve service delivery
Why SAP
• Scalable, reliable solution with rich
functionality
• IT platform for the future
Benefits
• Elimination of legacy systems
• Real-time access to student data
• Seamless integration of data across all
business units
• A single view of all data, knowledge, and
resources with complete access control
• Improved communication between faculty
and students
Existing Environment
Disparate, homegrown IT systems and
manual information processing
Third-Party Integration
• Database: Oracle 10g Release 2
• Hardware: Dell PowerEdge 2950 server
• Operating system: Microsoft Windows
Server 2003

SAP® Solutions and Services

• SAP® ERP application
• SAP for Higher Education & Research,
including SAP Student Lifecycle Manage-
ment application
• SAP NetWeaver® Portal component

Implementation Highlights
• Project completion in 2.5 months
• Implementation of enterprise portal

SAP Customer Success Story

Higher Education and Research
As organizations succeed and expand, their IT resources often HE&R) solution portfolio, which in-
cludes the SAP Student Lifecycle Man-
struggle to keep up. Universities are no exception. As the University agement application.
of Petroleum & Energy Studies (UPES) grew, its IT infrastructure
“We were looking for a vendor that
began to feel the strain. IT had become fragmented – with different could understand our specific needs
departments relying on individual islands of information within the and had proven expertise in the area of
higher education and research,” says
system. UPES’s multiple, stand-alone legacy systems became in- Ashish Bharadwaj, associate director
creasingly unresponsive. In addition, there was no central system to of IT at UPES. “SAP was the only one
that had the functional depth in its
manage the different business processes across different locations, products and whom we found capable
resulting in suboptimal and inefficient performance. Further, there of catering to our requirements – par-
ticularly in the areas of finance and ac-
was no real-time availability and seamless delivery of data. Manage- counting. Being built on platforms and
ment had the perennial problem of having to wait to access data technologies that are future-proof in
terms of scalability, platform neutrality,
from different departments and locations. This was adversely affect- and reliability, SAP was a perfect
ing decision making as information was not only delayed, but at match.”
times was also incomplete and out of date. UPES turned to SAP Team Combines Domain
for the integrated solutions it needed. Knowledge and SAP Expertise

After selecting SAP ERP and SAP for

A World-Class Institution
UPES – based in Dehradun, India – is
India’s first domain-specific university
to focus on energy and allied industry
sectors and to offer specialized gradu-
ate, postgraduate, and doctoral cours-
es. In less than three years, it has
emerged as a world-class institution,
dedicated to developing super-
specialized, professional managers
and engineers across the oil and gas,
power, transportation, and mining
industries. UPES currently has three
campuses in India – one in the National
Capital Region, Rajahmundry in Andhra
Pradesh, and a main campus in
Dehradun.
Ready for an Integrated
SAP® Solution
With a robust level of hardware and
network connectivity already in place,
UPES decided it was time to unify its
business systems with a single enter-
prise resource planning (ERP) applica-
tion to support a variety of back-office
processes. Further, the university was
also keen to extend its computing ca-
pabilities to the academic community,
especially to its students. After an all-
around and comprehensive evaluation
of its needs and the available solutions,
UPES found a solution to all its
business-system issues by implement-
ing SAP® software such as the SAP
ERP application and the SAP for Higher
Education and Research (SAP for
HE&R, UPES brought L&T Infotech Ltd.
on board as the implementation part-
ner. UPES provided the domain knowl-
edge and L&T Infotech supplied the
skills required for working with SAP
core software. The biggest challenge
lay in choosing the right implementation
model. Other complexities included
deciding how to manage change and
how to deploy effective workflows for
essential business processes. “We
received extensive help and assistance
from SAP Consulting,” says Bharadwaj.
The implementation team defined its
goals: The project objectives included
automating business processes, unify-
ing the data in a single source for all
business units, gaining access to data
anytime, anywhere, implementing col-
 “We were looking for a vendor that could understand our specific needs
and had proven expertise in the area of higher education and research.
SAP was the only one that had the functional depth in its products and
whom we found capable of catering to our requirements – particularly in
the areas of finance and accounting.”

Ashish Bharadwaj, Associate Director of IT, University of Petroleum & Energy Studies

laborative and systematic operational
management, improving service deliv-
ery, and integrating data seamlessly
across business units.
Go-Live in Just 10 Weeks
By following each stage in the ASAP
methodology, the implementation team
completed the project and the solution
went live in only two and a half months.
The SAP software had more than
adequate flexibility to meet UPES’s
business needs. Because analyzing
processes and defining key functional
roles and responsibilities had been
extensively thought through prior to
implementation, very little business
process reengineering was required.
“However, people had to be sensi-
tized,” adds Bharadwaj, “that a pro-
cess, once defined for an organization,
should be followed for the most part –
with only rare exceptions.”
By the end of the project, UPES had
implemented SAP ERP for financials,
controlling, materials management, and
human resources (including organiza-
tion management and personnel admin-
“Being built on platforms and technologies that are future-proof in terms
of scalability, platform neutrality, and reliability, SAP was a perfect match.”
Ashish Bharadwaj, Associate Director of IT, University of Petroleum & Energy Studies
SAP NetWeaver® Portal component
(formerly SAP Enterprise Portal
component).
One Common Platform:
Multiple Benefits
All departments and functional areas
can now work on one common platform
– leading to numerous process benefits
and reduction of errors. A vast im-
provement has been seen in almost ev-
ery area of the university’s operations.
Different business units have been in-
tegrated. SAP solutions have stream-
lined administrative processes, brought
in increased operational efficiencies,
while providing real-time access and
visibility across the organization. Top
management does not have to wait for
a department to submit data – it is now
readily available for them to use.
Better visibility built into the system has
equipped UPES with a greater ability to
quickly generate reports and make
strategic decisions, while the finance
department uses the software to gen-
erate reports based on real-time data.
Closings for financial accounts have
In the area of procurement too, SAP
has helped UPES minimize costs and
enable both plan-driven and ad hoc
purchasing, while ensuring compliance
with procurement best practices. Em-
ployees in procurement use the SAP
software to streamline purchasing
which leads to improved supplier rela-
tionships – all of which helps the uni-
versity save time and money. UPES
now has greater insight into its spend-
ing habits, which has enabled it to
source from best-value suppliers and
negotiate the most favorable trading
terms. It also allows the university to
collaborate more closely with suppliers
and build stronger relationships with
them.
Real-Time Access to Data
SAP for HE&R has been able to provide
UPES with real-time access to student
data, seamless integration of data
across all business units, a single por-
tal with complete and controlled access
to the entire organization’s data, infor-
mation, and knowledge resources. As
a result, communication among faculty
and students has improved. The portal
provides self-service to students and
faculty for basic functions like viewing
an individual’s own details, grading, and
changing contact information. The por-
tal gives users an efficient central
access point for information and saves
time.

istration). Additionally, UPES has
deployed SAP Student Lifecycle Man-
agement. UPES also wanted to consoli-
date access to all its different systems,
processes, and information into a sin-
gle place and found the answer in the
also become far easier now. The SAP
solutions have enabled proactive finan-
cial planning, real-time budget visibility,
consolidated financial reporting, stream-
lined cash flow activities, and optimized
financial transactions.
Implementing SAP software has had
the benefit of requiring UPES employ-
ees to thoroughly understand the
business processes and workflows
they use. “This change of mind-set has
been one of the most important bene-

fits we have derived from our imple-
mentation,” says Dr. Parag Diwan, vice
chancellor at UPES. Employees now
have to be very systematic, disciplined,
and collaborative in the way they work.
“It is a system that has brought world-
class experience and best practices to
our organization in the areas where we
have implemented it,” adds Bharadwaj.
Employee concentration on core areas
has improved quality, enriched roles
and profiles of staff, and increased
morale.
The project has helped UPES deploy
cutting-edge technology and best prac-
tices, resulting in improved business
processes and service delivery. UPES
is able to serve its customers better
and meet their needs more efficiently.
“Fulfillment time has been reduced by
nearly 30% and transactional accuracy
increased by over 15%,” says Bharad-
waj. While UPES has had ample oppor-
tunity to evaluate the advantages of its
SAP implementation and experience
qualitative benefits, it is still too early to
talk about quantified savings, since the
project went live only in January 2007.
However, ROI estimates project 30%
year-on-year savings at the current
scale of operations.
www.sap.com /contactsap
SAP: Part of UPES’s Future Plans
UPES aims to be a leading, internation-
al institution with state-of-the-art facili-
ties and provide world-class education,
training, research, consultancy, and
outreach services in its domain. The ef-
fective use of IT to help solve business
issues and adapt to student demands
and government regulations will always
have a high priority in UPES’s quest to
keep costs down and remain competi-
tive. Already a satisfied SAP customer,
UPES see SAP solutions as an answer
to its growing business needs. In fact,
the university is already looking into
enhancing its SAP HR solution so it
can process its payroll in-house. Mean-
while, UPES’s new SAP solutions offer
a great experience for all involved –
students, potential students, staff,
faculty, management, board members,
corporate visitors, and alumni.
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